First called Amargosa, meaning “bitter water” in the Paiute language, this tiny town situated in the Mojave Desert, is today home to less than a half dozen people. Getting its start as a borax mining community, several historic buildings continue to stand today including the Amargosa Hotel and Opera House, which still cater to visitors.

Long used by area Indians, in the 19^th century, this site began to be utilized by prospectors and area settlers. In 1907, when a post office was established, the name was changed to Death Valley Junction.  However, there was very little here until 1914 when the Pacific Coast Borax Company built the Death Valley Railroad, a narrow-gauge line which operated from Ryan, California to Death Valley Junction, carrying borax. The railroad, which ran for about 20 miles from Ryan, connected up with the Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad, providing the opportunity for the Pacific Coast Borax Company to profit from the Tonopah, Goldfield, and Bullfrog booms to the north, as well as servicing their own borax mines on the eastern fringes of Death Valley.

That first year, the town gained several new businesses comprised housed in tents, including a tent hotel, tent saloon, tent store and a few dwellings. However, the next year, the town began to grow when new mines were found in the area and a number of permanent buildings were erected. As it began to take on an air of permanence, a number of milling facilities for borax were built in the area and the town’s location made it a social center for the outlying area. From 1923 to 1925, the Pacific Coast Borax Company constructed a number of buildings in Amargosa, hiring architect Alexander Hamilton McCulloch to design a Spanish Colonial Revival whistle stop, which centered on a hotel, theater and office complex building.  The U-shaped complex of adobe also housed a dormitory, a store, a 23 room hotel, and dining room. A recreation hall was built at the northeast end of the complex and was used as a community center for dances, church services, movies, funerals, and town meetings. At that time, this building was known as Corkhill Hall. The town’s population peaked at about 300 people, but its heydays were short lived.

In 1927, the Pacific Coast Borax Company moved its headquarters to a new mine closer to Los Angeles, California, and the following year, the Death Valley Railroad discontinued operations between Ryan and Death Valley Junction. Once running parallel to today’s State Route 190, the railroad’s equipment was pulled up and transferred to the United States Potash Railroad in Carlsbad, New Mexico. However, a locomotive from the railroad can still be seen at the Borax Museum at Furnace Creek in Death Valley National Park.

Though its main employer was gone, the town continued to survive as a tourist destination until the Depression, when it dropped off dramatically. However, creation of the Death Valley National Monument in 1933 kept interest in Death Valley high and though declining, Death Valley Junction continued.  Death Valley Junction had rail service until 1940 when most everyone left and the post office was closed. Area residents then received their mail from Furnace Creek Ranch, some 30 miles away.  A couple of decades later, another post office was opened in 1962, this time reverting back to the name of Amargosa. In 1967, things once again changed for the small town when New York ballet dancer, mime, artist, and actress, Marta Becket and her husband suffered a flat tire in Death Valley.